Chapter 370 - 177: Steady Rise

Chapter 370: Chapter 177: Steady Rise

"Mm-hmm!"

"Boss! How large should the dairy farming operation in Monan be?"

"Maintain at least 100,000 lactating dairy cows annually, with the facility to be completed within five years."

"Five years? No problem." Hearing that he had five years to develop it, Li Xinhua felt the pressure ease.

He had already gained experience at Hero Dairy, where he had expanded the herd by nearly 30,000 cows in just six months. To maintain 100,000 lactating cows annually, the total herd at the Monan breeding base would need to reach 200,000. Spread over five years, that would be a little over 40,000 cows per year.

Furthermore, Hero Dairy currently had 65,000 cows and could breed nearly 32,000 calves each year.

This meant that Hero Dairy’s own breeding program would supply a large portion of the cows for the Monan base in the future.

"Then wrap up your work here. Head over to the Monan Branch in a week. I’ll tell Liu Zhiben and Wu Song to cooperate with you."

"Understood." Li Xinhua then remembered the discussion about the cheese industry and quickly seized the opportunity. "Boss! Factory Director Ma from the Luling Milk Plant just suggested to me that we should develop cheese products. I believe this industry has great potential."

"Fine. Write up a report and submit it."

"Yes, sir."

"You can get back to your work."

"Goodbye, Boss."

...

Jiang Miao hung up the phone.

Lü Weibin, who was still in the office, also recalled something. "Boss, speaking of new industries, after I got back yesterday, I noticed that since the launch of the specialty store app, sales of Ginseng Fruit, strawberries, and tomatoes have been excellent. I think we should consider expanding production."

"Old Lü is right. I’ve noticed this issue as well," Jiang Haibo said. He had been specifically reviewing reports from the market research department recently. "The company’s strawberry greenhouses currently produce only 60,000 kilograms of strawberries per month. Compared to the national total annual output of 3.6 million tons, that’s far too little."

"What does the market research department say?" Jiang Miao didn’t make a snap decision.

Jiang Haibo was prepared. "The market research department says we can use Dandong Strawberries as a reference. They currently account for 8.8% of the national strawberry output, which is about 320,000 tons per year. Therefore, we should aim for a similar scale."

Jiang Miao thought for a moment.

’To produce such a huge volume of strawberries, even with the high-yield Jasmine Strawberry variety, it would require 64,000 mu. If we divide the land among three varieties, we’d probably need about 80,000 mu.’

’However, considering the increased efforts in desert reclamation in the North, the national ’red line’ for arable land will surely be adjusted. This would release more arable land quotas, allowing some of this land to be converted into vegetable plots and orchards for growing cash crops.’

’Besides, Hailufeng Company has an advantage that many other companies lack: a large number of newly acquired arable land quotas.’

’A quota adjustment is entirely possible.’

’The so-called quota adjustment means using land within the ’red line’ in a needed area to plant cash crops, and then using the arable land quotas held by the Monan Branch to offset it.’

’Although the offsetting land quota would require planting grain crops like corn.’

’But that’s not a problem. The perennial Immortal Soybeans will sprout in early March. As long as they are harvested for fodder in mid-April, we can immediately plant corn from late April to early May.’

’In this planting model, the soybeans, being shorter than the corn, will have their growth and pod maturation inhibited. After the corn is harvested in late September or early October, the soybeans can continue growing for another month and be harvested in early November, still achieving a decent yield.’

’So, a land quota swap is feasible.’

’After all, the country only requires that the ’red line’ for arable land is maintained. There aren’t strict restrictions on where this land is located. With Hailufeng Company’s influence, it would be easy to get Zhelimu City to agree to a quota adjustment.’

’And as long as Zhelimu City agrees to the quota adjustment, the places whose land is being used to grow cash crops certainly won’t object—unless they’ve lost their minds.’

"Alright. Old Lü, prepare a report. Start by planning three large-scale planting bases in Eastern Guangdong, Sunan, and Ji Bei, each 100,000 mu in size. Apply to Zhelimu City for the arable land quota adjustment."

"An arable land quota adjustment?" Lü Weibin snapped back to reality, realizing it was a rather good solution.

As for opening up seedling sales to other growers, Jiang Miao had already dismissed the idea of selling strawberry, Ginseng Fruit, and tomato seedlings. The reason was that it was too difficult to control the growers of these varieties.

In the first half of this year alone, Hailufeng Company’s market research department had discovered 17 small breeding companies or private farms illegally propagating Black Pearl Tomatoes, Cheese Strawberries, Vanilla Strawberries, and Jasmine Strawberries, and selling the seedlings on a small scale.

And Hailufeng Company’s legal department didn’t go easy on these culprits. They first secretly gathered evidence and then directly sued the producers who were illegally propagating the seedlings.

These cases were open-and-shut.

Because every one of Hailufeng Company’s varieties was protected by a gene patent, a simple genetic test provided irrefutable proof.

This high-pressure crackdown was what suppressed the trend of rampant seedling piracy.

As for the small-scale growers who secretly planted seeds they had taken from the strawberries and tomatoes, Hailufeng Company turned a blind eye, as long as they didn’t go too far by propagating, planting, and selling on a large scale.

In truth, propagating from seed only works for a few years. Over time, after multiple generations of breeding, the traits would quickly degrade. A domestic example was the Shine Muscat grape, which had shown significant trait degradation.

Furthermore, the cultivation of these strawberry, Ginseng Fruit, and tomato varieties required special techniques, all of which were currently held exclusively by Hailufeng Company.

Without these techniques, not only would the yield per mu decrease, but the flavor would also fluctuate, and the plants would be highly susceptible to disease.

Therefore, after secretly planting one or two mu, small-scale growers quickly discovered they couldn’t manage it.

The reason Jiang Miao had the legal department crack down so hard on the small companies and farms engaged in illegal large-scale propagation was because the harm they caused was severe. They not only infringed on Hailufeng Company’s intellectual property but also severely disrupted the market. At the same time, they also harmed some of the farmers who bought their seedlings.

This was another reason why he did not plan to sell the seedlings.

Once Hailufeng Company began selling seedlings itself, the market would be rapidly flooded with pirated versions, which would be even harder to combat.

This was different from durians, pistachios, and cherries. These three types of agricultural products required transgenic rootstock to overcome climate incompatibility. Since only Hailufeng Company could produce this transgenic rootstock, small companies and nurseries had no way to counterfeit it.